For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better.

We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.

I won't be protected. I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult.

Love and understand the Italians, for the people are more marvellous than the land.

Humility is a quality for which I have only a limited admiration. In many phases of life it is a great mistake and degenerates into defensiveness or hypocrisy.

It was not that ladies were inferior to men; it was that they were different. Their mission was to inspire others to achievement rather than to achieve themselves. Indirectly, by means of tact and a spotless name, a lady could accomplish much. But if she rushed into the fray herself she would be first censured, then despised, and finally ignored.

All men are equal — all men, that is to say, who possess umbrellas.